An unusual thatched barn in the Yorkshire Dales

What has a thatched barn got to do with a reservoir? If you wander along the path fringing Grimwith (pronounced Grim’ath) Reservoir, you’ll come to High Laithe, a lonesome cruck barn perched on a mound of grass beside the water.

In Medieval times wooden constructed cruck barns were two-a-penny across the Dales before the great rebuild in the 17th century when they were torn down and rebuilt in stone, often re-using the curved cruck timber in the ceilings. Now they’re a rare sight with their steep pitched heather-thatched roofs.

In the 1970s when plans were drawn up to expand the reservoir, historians recognised the significance of this particular barn and believed it was probably built towards the end of the cruck-barn building period, well over 400 years ago.

It was relocated to its present site on the eastern end of the reservoir and now stands proudly as a monument to the existence of the hamlets of Grimwith and Gate Up before they were abandoned and flooded.

Grimwith Reservoir itself was originally built by Bradford Corporation Works in 1864 to act as a compensatory reservoir, providing water to power the textile mills in nearby towns and villages such as Otley and Addingham, compensating for the water drawn off further up the River Wharfe at Barden that supplied Bradfrod.

By the 1970s, and despite two reservoirs, Scar House and Angram, being built in Nidderdale to supply the region’s drinking water, the ‘thirst’ for more was so great that plans were drawn up for Grimwith to be rebuilt and expanded.

The ‘new’ Grimwith was completed in 1983 providing a huge storage capacity of 4,889 million gallons, almost eight times its original size.

Over the years it’s become an important nature reserve with wildfowl such as wigeon, teal, greylag and Canadian geese among the species taking up residence. Visit on a spring day though and you can also be treated to the sound of skylarks, lapwings and the mournful cry of curlews as you stroll around the 4-mile path.